rural business and cooperative programs

While many manufacturing companies provide well-paying jobs and play a vital role in creating vibrant, healthy rural communities, sometimes rural communities may struggle to attract these companies. To help bridge this gap, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) was created. This Administration-wide effort brings together federal departments and agencies to provide coordinated assistance to communities to become more attractive for manufacturers.

Recently, USDA hosted two IMCP events in Minnesota and California with diverse audiences of about 120 stakeholders representing manufacturing businesses, lenders, economic development organizations, universities and community colleges, small businesses development centers, and local leaders among others. At both meetings, USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service Administrator Lillian Salerno led panels of federal partners that discussed the initiative and sought input on the needs of local manufacturers.

During these difficult economic times we know that one of the best ways to help aid in the recovery process is to assist businesses that create jobs, and spur growth. In Troy, North Carolina, USDA Rural Development had the opportunity to highlight our successful efforts with a local company Aseptia/Wright Foods.

Lillian Salerno, Acting Administrator for USDA’s Rural Business and Cooperative programs, visited the local business.  Under USDA Rural Development, USDA guaranteed a $5.5 million loan last year for Aseptia to purchase a building, equipment and make building improvements for their first commercial-scale manufacturing facility.

“Show me the money.”  You have heard that phrase, right? Made famous by the 1996 film  Jerry Maguire, we have all probably heard it said a thousand times, and yet, the phrase remains just as valid today.

Owners of rural businesses are asking the same question because finding capital is a major challenge for those who wish to grow and expand, and Lillian Salerno, USDA’s top business development official, met with various business leaders and owners in the Pacific Northwest to offer assistance on job creation and economic growth efforts.

Saturday, November 24, 2012 is Small Business Saturday.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, in partnership with the White House and the Small Business Administration, proudly supports this important effort by asking everyone to shop at small businesses whenever possible.  Presently, there are 28 million small businesses throughout the United States, representing 44 percent of U.S. private sector payroll.  These small businesses also create 2 out of every 3 new American jobs.

Today, the diversity of businesses found in our rural communities closely mirrors that of metropolitan areas; coming in all shapes and sizes, small and large; start-up and existing, entrepreneurial and franchised; corporations, companies and partnerships. Both rural and metropolitan, businesses provide jobs, access to goods and services, and open doors to new opportunities for regional development and growth.

USDA Rural Business Administrator Judy Canales joined State Director Jay Healy recently for discussions about, and tours of, three Rural Development financed projects currently underway in Massachusetts.   Their first stop was at Berkshire East Ski Area in Charlemont, where the Administrator led a roundtable discussion about USDA’s renewable energy initiatives and celebrated the installation of a new, 900kW wind turbine at the ski area.

Rural Development provided Berkshire East a loan guarantee through its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).  The funds were used, in conjunction with commercial financing through Greenfield Savings Bank and State Clean Energy Center grants, to purchase and install the wind turbine at the family-owned ski area.

The Administrator for USDA’s Rural Business and Cooperative Programs, Judy Canales was in Louisiana recently to tour Game Equipment, a Rural Development –funded project in Donaldsonville.  Louisiana Rural Development State Director, Clarence W. Hawkins; Jeff Jobe, Regional Coordinator of USDA Business programs; Peachy Melancon, wife of Congressman Charlie Melancon; Anne Perry, Regional Representative of Louisiana Economic Development Office (LED); John Broussard, Business and Cooperative Programs  Director; Lee Jones, Assistant to State Director and lenders were also on the tour. 

While touring the facilities of McKechnie Vehicle Components in Kentucky last month, USDA Rural Business and Cooperative Programs Administrator Judy Canales got up close and personal with many of the company’s employees whose jobs were saved thanks to assistance from Rural Development and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.